While Kabuki Warriors presents the original concept of a fighting game revolving around a kabuki play, that is the closest thing to merit this game provides. Okay, the opening FMV isn't terrible either, but that's it. The characters have no personality to speak of and are fairly generic in terms of gameplay ability. Nearly every character has a standard katana, and their fighting styles are, with few exceptions, only set apart by their super moves. Hell, there are three characters that are nothing but literal palette swaps of one another (and have no super move to boot), and the closest thing the game has to a secret character is also a palette swap, replacing his predecessor's alternate costume.
Fighting works like Smash Bros., only without special moves. You've got jump, block, and attack buttons. Pressing directions with the attack button changes up the type of attack. This would work if the controls were responsive enough. There were times where I had to jam on the attack button three or four times before anything happened. If I had just attacked, it would be more like six times, because every attack has extensive lag. Fortunately, the CPU is easy enough to where this isn't a problem, but this presents an entirely new problem on its own: the game is way too easy. With its terribly lackluster AI and lack of difficulty settings, even a blind dog could complete the game. The closest thing to having fun with this game I had was thinking up new ways to beat the computer with giving myself disadvantages. I've never lost a round, and yet I've done things such as let myself drop down to a single hit before attacking, not looking at the screen, mashing the attack button without doing anything else, walking away from the game for a whole minute, and sometimes a combination of any of the above. Unfortunately, I couldn't get the infamous "mash the controller with your butt to win" to work... either my ass isn't bony enough, or it's because it only works with a standard Xbox controller (I was using a 360). Either way, the AI is amazingly stupid.
The other features of battle are appealing to the crowd (kind of like taunting) and the single-button super moves. There's a meter at the bottom of the screen that fills one way or the other, in benefit to whichever player has attacked and/or appealed more. When it's flashing on a player's side, he is able to use his super move. Appealing to the crowd multiple times in a match is not only very doable, but ridiculously easy. It seems that if your opponent attacks you while you are appealing, you take no damage. If they attack during the two seconds or so it takes to recover following the appeal, you do take damage, however, but this happened very rarely when battling the computer. The game also has a roll maneuver and a throw for each character, but neither is really useful.
Other than the Dead or Alive games and a few cross-platform releases, the original Xbox was home to a lot of terrible fighters. It's really hard to say, but Kabuki Warriors just may be the bottom of the barrel.
